Held Above the Waves
by Dark Seraphim
Summary: (Love Nikki/Shining Nikki end spoilers). A catastrophe that no one could have foreseen brings two men together again. Nidhogg/Louie(or rather, the acceptance that brother/friend is all that's available). Various characters.


This fic was actually written on impulse. When I found out about the supposed endgame spoilers, I well, scoffed. But, then as I was walking home from a cafe while it was raining, I thought of Jaime/Cersei, of all couples(they're a canon incest pairing in Game of Thrones) and well, this story is the result. I guess things do happen for a reason. Heh.

* * *

/Not like this, not like this/ kept going through Colonel Nidhogg's mind as he stood at the top of the command tower. He could see the waters from above and could only stand in shock, his amber eyes wide. Other officers carried out his orders and he knew that he belonged with them, but instead he stood in front of the window. /Not like this/. He knew he did everything he could, he knew that his people had done the same thing. The sheer force of his and everyone else's wills kept things in line, but the floods broke the dams, buildings, vehicles, and the strongest of wills alike, including Nidhogg's own.

For the first time in his life, he felt completely shattered and more alone than ever. /Not like this/. He began removing parts of his uniform. First his hat, then his medals, his insignia, his fur cape, but stopped at his neckerchief that held the onyx he cherished. He chose not to remove his matching earrings. /I will die with my onyx. I will die on my own terms/. Dark Verdict sat on his left hip, but his gloved hand reached for his sidearm instead. Then, the door burst open. He turned.

/Louie/!

Nidhogg gasped at the sudden appearance of his best friend, the man wearing white and black in contrast to his own.

"Louie!" Without thinking, he ran towards the man he loved more than anyone, no matter how often Nidhogg told himself that they were 'fated to be enemies', no matter how often he pointed a finger at Louie.

"We don't have much time," Louie replied, returning Nidhogg's tight embrace.

They held each other at arms length. "You're right, we don't."

"Come on!"

Hand on hand, white glove against black, the two men ran out of the room into the hallway with Nidhogg trailing behind. This usually did not happen, but today was not the usual day.

"I don't want to die, Louie!" Nidhogg cried out, uncharacteristic of him, but he didn't care. Louie was with him now and that was all that mattered. "Not like this!"

"We're not going to," Louie replied with an unusual amount of command in his voice. "And even if we do, then we will die together like human beings and not like panicked animals!"

Nidhogg's will snapped at attention. "You're right...you're right. Head to the left and up the stairs!" He grip tightened around Louie's hand as he caught up to him, and together their boots, black next to white, sang on the floor as they ran upstairs to the tower heliport.

Only one army helicopter stood at the port, but it was more than enough. Louie opened the door and went straight to the pilot's seat.

/It's okay, it's okay/. Nidhogg sat next to him. /You have always been a better pilot/. He looked ahead, at the torrential rain and rising water while Louie brought the helicopter alive with a flip of switches and the push of buttons. Nidhogg watched as Louie put his left hand on the collective pitch, his right on the cyclic stick, and his white boots on the anti-torque pedals, his left foot pressing downward.

/Perfect...of course, even in this/. Nidhogg tore his gaze away and looked in horror at the wall of water heading their way. "Louie!"

"Don't worry! I have this!" Louie lifted the collective and the helicopter sailed into the air, the flood narrowly missing them.

Nidhogg gasped, and did everything he could to remain impassive, especially since Louie remained in control despite the fury of this unusually powerful storm, but lightning flashed around the helicopter. "No no no no...not this..." Helicopters attracted lightning, both men knew this, but what choice did they have? They would have never made it to an airplane and any other vehicle was out of the question.

"Shit..." Louie grumbled. "But, I have this, I still have this."

/Yes, yes, you do/. "Louie, I need you to know that I loved you. I still do and I always will despite our...disagreements, despite everything that has happened between us." His heart ached at knowing that Louie would only ever see him in a familial sense. And worse, there was Lunar, Louie's lover, a women Nidhogg personally killed during the invasion of Cloud Empire. He continued anyway, "As a brother and a friend. I should have taken what I could get. I should have been better at burying those...other feelings." /I should have been better at persuading you to my side/.

At first, Louie said nothing, which was understandable considering that a helicopter involved all limbs at all times and the visibility required tech beyond eyes. The storm did its damnedest to shake the helicopter with soaking wet wind, strike it down with lightning, and ensure that it would crash against the North Kingdom mountains, but it failed. Louie remained in control, white gloves firmly on both sticks, white boots firmly pushing against the pedals, his blue eyes fixed on what little visibility they had. The helicopter continued to climb and Nidhogg could swear that he could see a break in the raging clouds. Only then did Louie speak.

"I love you..." He trailed off with a sigh.

Finally, the helicopter rose above all that despised it and the sun wrote itself beautifully across the sky. Nidhogg closed his eyes, his dark haired head resting on the seat. /Perfect.../ Then, he knew that it was back to the business of getting bearings and looking for any survivors, but the radio voiced nothing but static. "Damn it..."

"There has to be something...someone..." Louie replied.

"Sure, if the radio could unfuck itself."

"We're up high, Nidhogg..." Louie quietly gasped. "And it's beautiful..."

'Yes, it is," Nidhogg noted the alto-stratus clouds coloring the sky. "But, it will do us no good if we freeze to death, or crash." The helicopter provided heat which did well to help them dry and remain warm, but that wasn't the point. Anyone with sense would know that they could only stay up at this altitude for so long.

"We will do neither," Louie replied.

Nidhogg smiled, knowing he would have said the same if roles were reversed. "And even if we did, we will die together..."

"Like human beings and not panicked animals, " Louie finished. "Just let me have control...at least for awhile."

"Take all the control you need," Nidhogg replied, feeling nothing but trust in his dearest friend.

"I wonder how long this will last."

"Don't push your luck or I'll take it back."

Louie chuckled as he looked down at the radar and the fuel gauge. He briefly looked to the sun. "Looks like we're going southeast, towards Cloud. Luckily, the tank is mostly full, so we'll last for awhile."

/Cloud.../ Nidhogg kept checking the radio. "Nothing in North Kingdom? I don't believe that. There has to be someone. We have bases in the mountains. We can land somewhere there."

"We're too far out now. Damn the storm...what the hell was that?"

"Payment for our sins..." Nidhogg muttered. "But, why everyone? Why..."

Louie shook his head. "I don't know, but I do suspect that the death count is high."

"We can't be the only survivors."

"I doubt we are, but as it stands now, there's no going back to North Kingdom. I'm willing to bet that everything but the highest of mountains have been completely submerged."

Nidhogg remembered the huge wall of water that almost overtook them and that was at the command tower. He remembered other buildings collapsing under the sheer force of nature and gods knew what and who else that water carried. "Worse yet, if the water didn't kill them, the cold surely will. We are a people of winter, but even we have limits."

Louie nodded. "Exactly. For now, Cloud is a better bet."

"Oh..." Nidhogg looked down at his gloved hands. "I won't exactly be welcome."

"No one has to know we are there..."

Cloud Empire didn't even have helipads, much less actual heliports. It did, however, have a plateau that proved a safe haven for all sorts of helicopters. Nidhogg remembered his army using this area quite a bit. To the west, the sun dipped below the horizon creating a tanzanite sky that also reflected against the new sea that sat below them.

Louie followed Nidhogg's stoic gaze. "My god...this whole area." He looked to the east, seeing only the highest buildings remaining and even then, the waters were over half-way to the top. "I'm surprised no one ran here."

"To be honest, I'm glad..."

"Nidhogg..."

"History has shown that former enemies can become allies if they help rebuild and do everything they can to foster good will, but now? I..." Nidhogg closed his eyes, but then opened them again when he remembered that they were in a cargo copter. "Wait...when we leave here, we'll leave some things behind. No one has to know, except that it came from North Kingdom."

Louie nodded. "Understood."

"I don't want to risk anyone seeing us and we need to conserve energy, so the power will be off until we leave."

Louie smiled with a 'I knew he'd do this' look. "Understood."

Both men sat in the cabin with no light, save for a small flashlight they kept carefully hidden. Neither one of them wanted to be visible to any possible survivors. They had taken off their uniforms and wrapped themselves in blankets provided in the cargo. They sat very close, keeping each other warm.

"What luck, don't you think?" Louis asked.

"I've always believed that people make their own luck and I'm not about to change my mind. That copter was up there for a reason."

"But, you stayed..."

Nidhogg nodded. "I did. I had to, you know why and so did everyone else. " He sighed. "But, when things started falling apart, all I could do was watch in horror as communications shut down with people screaming to the storm, the collapsing buildings. In the end, I was completely alone." He pressed his full lips together. "Before you got there, I decided that I didn't deserve to wear my uniform. I failed everyone..." He looked to his sidearm that sat on top of what was left of his uniform, near his dreaded sword, Dark Verdict. "I was going to eat a bullet."

"I'm glad I got there on time," Louie answered.

Nidhogg's heart ached again, but he smiled through it. "So am I. See? We make our own luck."

"Years ago, I crashed nearby here. It was a technical problem. I was lucky to be alive."

"You were skilled enough to be alive," Nidhogg corrected.

"Yes, you're right. It's how I met her..."

"Lunar..." Nidhogg's heart ached for a different reason. "Yes, I know." He remembered the raging jealousy he felt when he discovered their relationship those years ago. Now, all he could feel was sorrow for Louie. "Please understand that I-"

"Yea, I know," Louie interjected. "You did what you felt you had to." He shook his white haired head. "She challenged you and she lost. It's that simple. I found out that someone else was going to kill her and...they would not have been so kind."

Through the shadows, Nidhogg gazed at Louie before looking down. "Honestly, I'm surprised you came for me. I thought you'd be long gone with Nikki and her friends."

Louie shook his head. "You were the first person I thought of when all this happened. I guess I'm no longer a knight of any kind. I guess in the end, I chose you."

Nidhogg chuckled. "Wish you'd have done that sooner." /And chose me over Lunar and the Nameless Knights.../.

"Five of cups, remember?"

Nidhogg nodded. "Ah yes, the five of cups. No use crying over spilled milk. All you can do is clean up and move forward."

"Do you still have your deck? Or is it underwater?"

"Hmm...actually, I have it. It's in one of my uniform pockets." He shook his head with a sad smile. "My medals, my hat, my chain, my cape...my car...most of everything I have...gone."

Louie's blue eyes looked out the cockpit window, at the stars. "You have more than what I have..."

"Oh! Your bike!"

"Heh...yup, but we both managed to keep what mattered most though."

"Hmmm..." Nidhogg felt his eyes drop. He leaned against Louie. "Tired...so tired..."

"Just rest. We've been through...we...I can't even..."

"Everything was for nothing...all of my plans, all of what anyone wanted. All gone beneath the waves." He rested his head against Louie's blanketed shoulder, wishing that this was all a dream but facing the fact that it wasn't.

"Just get some sleep," Louie replied, shutting off the flashlight.

And between two very different seas, they did.

* * *

Er, yea, Nidhogg, of all people, has a tarot deck. But, he doesn't see them as fate that HAS to be followed. You know how he is about that. :) And honestly, I have no idea where that headcanon came from. Well, I do see him as the "King of Swords".

Anyway, the phrase "we will die like humans" was inspired by a woman named Charis in the book Taliesin by Stephen Lawhead. I highly recommend it, especially if you like Arthurian legends.


End file.
